Who’s Billy? Introducing a new member of our family at Chez Green
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Billy was found wandering around Seaton beach a fortnight ago. Wet, bedraggled and clearly lost and confused. We took him in, gave him love and comfort and he begged us to take him home with us.
We thought long and hard as to whether we had the space and energy to take care of another little one, but we couldn’t resist his deep eyes and generally happy disposition. So after trying, but failing to find his family, we agreed.
He was very good on the way home; there weren’t too many ‘are we nearly there yet’ type questions, he didn’t make a mess in the car and the cat showed virtually no interest in him when we introduced them, which we took to be a good sign.
We didn’t want to upset Pussus Green – she’s 15 now, so doesn’t need any new shocks or troublesome house mates to drive her to an early grave.
Billy sleeps on Little Miss Green’s bed in a box. Billy on the bed in a box.
Little Miss Green is overjoyed because she’s never been allowed to have Pussus Green on her bed as I can’t bear all the cat fur everywhere. However, Billy doesn’t moult or wake up in the night needing to go out for a pee. He doesn’t scratch, get up at 3am to pad around the bed or snore.
Billy has his own ball to play with. Billy on the bed in a box with a ball.
The other day, Billy was looking cold, so Little Miss Green asked me to make him some clothes. I’m afraid I just don’t do sewing. I would LOVE to, but my teacher, Mrs Davis in secondary school, made my life hell during sewing lessons and I’m just not going to give her the satisfaction of ridiculing me in my head every time I make a wrong stitch. So sewing I don’t do.
Little miss Green begged me and kept on about how cold Billy was. I told her I didn’t have any material thinking that would be the end of it. But oh no! A day or so later, she triumphantly placed a piece of material on my desk that had come off the bottom of the curtain.
These curtains are gradually rotting away due to sun damage in our conservatory, so being a zero waste Mum I felt obliged to do something with the material rather than throw it away. Geesh, she knows how to manipulate my emotions.
I procrastinated for a few days. Little Miss Green kept holding the shivering Billy up and showing me how cold he was. In the end she put him on my desk too and left me to it.
<sulk>
Last night I was burning some papers (I couldn’t recycle them before you throw up your hands in horror because they were old bank statements) when I came upon a paper clip. Engulfed by a sudden wave of creative inspiration I gathered together Billy, the material and the paper clip and with a wave of my magic wand I made him a cape.
I presented him to Little Miss Green as she was on her way to bed.
Her eyes lit up, a broad smile spread across her face and, as she examined his clothing, hugged me and claimed ‘Oh Mummy, you’re so creative’.
This morning there has been nothing but talk about Billy and his adventures. I should have done it sooner!
Heeeeeere’s Billy. As you might be able to make out, Billy is a pebble and he has a zero waste wardrobe. Small things and all that……….But at least he’s not a battery operated toy that comes in layers of plastic packaging.
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That is sooo cute.
I shred and compost my old bank statements. Although they do also make good firelighters when it gets to that time of year.
Thank you Sarah – the simplest things can be the loveliest can’t they?!
Ruth, I’ve noticed with shredded paper that it burns *really* well – far better than unshredded (which tends to put fires out).
Have you ever used a log maker? Our neighbour passes on our local daily paper to us and I’ve been kind of tempted to try one. Although a friend had one and the things took so long to dry that he gave up.
I’ve seen a cylindrical one that doesn’t require wetting the paper first, but I’d like to hear how people have got on with them.
Having said that, we have a 12kw woodburner, so we’d need quite a few paper logs to keep warm 😀
I love Billy – he is gorgeous and every home should have one 😉
Our shredded paper goes into the compost bin 🙂
Billy looks very trendy in his new outfit 😉
It seems to be the way most people deal with their paper, then Poppy. I just need to be more organised, because I had about 500 pieces of paper to get rid of – it was like a ream of paper!. It’s one of those awful procrastination jobs of mine that gets left until I can’t stand the site of it any longer. And then it seems to arduous to shred it all and quicker to burn it.
Perhaps I should do a monthly shred and compost it. The trouble is we have a visiting horse who likes to eat the contents of our compost and I wouldn’t fancy his chances at eating a lot of paper………
🙂 Billy!
I shred my paper and use it to line the egg port for the chickens!
What’s the egg port? It sounds cute. Great to see you again; I’ve missed you!